A TORY MP has said Waltham Forest has “lots of characters” on the terror “margin” a day after the attack on Westminster.

The MP for Chingford and Woodford Green Iain Duncan Smith said the public now understands the terror threat “is going to go on and on”.

Police have just named Khalid Masood, 52, as the lone attacker who ploughed through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing two, before stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death outside the Houses of Parliament.

Masood was shot dead by officers after an attack which left three people dead and up to 40 injured.

Talking on the BBC’s Daily Politics today, the former Tory leader said now is not the time to figure out what wrong.

He said: “In my borough of north east London there will be lots of characters like this who are on the margin.

“The question is how much resources you need to follow all these people.

“It is not that we are not doing anything, the question is how far are we prepared to go and how much are we prepared to spend.”

Mr Duncan Smith said his family, including his daughter working over in Vancouver, Canada, all “genuinely” understand what the threat now is.

He added: “The public understand that they are in a new world. A world where this threat is going to go on and on and we have a real problem in defending ourselves against it.

“That is going to be the big issue over time and I think therefore the recognition first of all that a low key man in a car with a knife can create mayhem tells us that this problem is on a large scale.

“We are not a police state we are a free state and we believe in people’s rights and freedoms and therefore the balance between that is always a difficult job for any government.”